What is VestibulOTherapy?

Through a combination of contemporary neuroscience evidence and theoretical foundations from Ayres Sensory Integration, VestibulOTherapy utilizes vestibular activities embedded within the child’s occupations of play and learning to develop vestibular processing and related myelination between learning pathways to help children succeed in the social and educational roles (Wall, 2022).

Supporting evidence for vestibular interventions which positively impact learning and / or communication is found in children with under- responsive vestibular processing, ages 3-9 years of age, who present with developmental vestibular dysfunction that may be described as under responsive or hypo-responsive, experiencing delayed speech and language, academics, and motor skills without comorbidity of diagnosis that account for their deficits, with the exception of ADHD.  

The vestibular system integrates the body and mind, providing a frame of reference from which to orient and engage with objects and people within the environment. Vestibular sensations  mediate cognitive performance by forming overlapping pathways between main memory centers (hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, frontal cortex, and cerebellum) and vestibulo-cortical tracts to develop processes for object recognition, inner speech, numerical cognition, spatial navigation, sequencing, attention, impulse control, future planning, ordinance, and a variety of mental activities including attributes of a theory of mind and executive function (Moossavi & Jafari, 2019; Hitier et al., 2017; Lane et al., 2019; Koziol, 2014; Besnard, et al., 2016; Lotfi et al., 2017). The vestibular system further supports learning by way of establishing spatial cognition through its modulation of information being processed to represent information in a specific spatial order, providing mental imagery, numeracy, and sequencing (Mast et al., 2014; Besnard, et al., 2016; Hitier et al., 2014). Origins from the vestibular apparatus provide interhemispheric connectivity and promote myelination through memory and learning centers extending to the prefrontal cortex. Vestibular interventions facilitate the necessary connectivity for complex motor actions as well as higher order learning.

While vestibular rehabilitation is commonly employed to remediate after injury, many children’s vestibular impairments often remain undiagnosed and untreated (Li et al., 2016), resulting in challenges associated with communication and learning (sequencing, ordinance, memory, attention). Delayed maturation of this vital system may be due to increasingly sedentary and low risk lifestyles and or poor functioning of the vestibular apparatus. Health professionals lack knowledge for recognizing or addressing this underperforming system’s problem (Li et al., 2016). Through a variety of easy to use screening tools and practical applications, it is hopeful that through vestibulOTherapy more children will receive novel and frequent vestibular opportunities to increase their confidence, success, and mastery of educational and social roles.